Past
EXHIBITION: little did i know
little did i know
with Christie Carriere, Hannia Cheng, and jes sachse
26 February – 27 March 2021
an in-gallery and online project
in the current digital landscape, we are all collectively shitting ourselves with the idea of staying relevant now that everything’s online.
little did i know: a conversation; a disruption; a relationship that’s been nourished between Christie Carriere, Hannia Cheng, and jes sachse for almost a year.
what was supposed to be a reactionary panel series set for spring 2020 turned into ten-months in-residence together, unpacking interpersonal institutional neglect, examining the dystopian myths of capitalism, its digital mimicry, and the principals of nature.
we took time to ask ourselves, what conversations are being neglected right now? how do we hold space and embrace each other instead?
and honestly, what is taking time?
little did i know: we were imagining ways of navigating physical present-future space.
BIOGRAPHIES
Christie Jia Wen Carrière (she/her), who also goes by Chris, is a painter, illustrator, rug-maker and artistically curious individual. Chris is intrigued by, and aims to explore through her work, the nuances of the in-between. In-between her own ethnic identities; in-between culture and familial nostalgia; community and alienation.
Currently, she is working as a painting instructor, a free-lance illustrator, as well as the Co-Creative Director at Tea Base, a grassroots community arts space located in Chinatown. In this role, Chris has collaborated with MOCA, Myseum, the AGO, The Gladstone Hotel, Mayworks, and others. She obtained her BFA in Drawing & Painting with an Art History minor from OCAD University.
Since March 2020, Chris has been living and working out of the 4 walls of her bedroom, which can be found somewhere in Tkaronto/Toronto. She is an Aquarius and an Earth Tiger.
Hannia Cheng is a multi-disciplinary artist, space maker, and host/MC born and raised in Tkaronto/Toronto. At the intersection of relationships and reciprocity, their social practice focuses on art as the common place to build capacity, share stories, and hang out.
Their work explores ways of resilience and the speculative-futures that exist in the greater unknown of our daily lives.They are the 2020 Winner of the Pam Mcconnell Award for Young Women in Leadership. They’ve collaborated with AGO, Long Winter, Manifesto Festival, UNITY Charity, Nuit Blanche Scarborough, Toronto Fringe Festival, Toronto Pride, and Toronto Biennial.
They co-founded Tea Base in 2019, a curious community arts space tucked away in Chinatown Centre Mall. They currently organize with Friends of Chinatown Toronto, a grassroots group working to build community power and resist displacement in Chinatown.
Presently living in Tkaronto, jes sachse is an artist, writer and choreographer who addresses the negotiations of bodies moving in public/private space and the work of their care. Often found marrying poetry with large scale sculptural forms, their work has been presented and supported by 7a*11d Performance Art Festival, Dancemakers, the Centre de Création et Recherche O Vertigo (Montréal), Musagetes (Guelph), Harbourfront Centre, among other centres.
Their work has appeared in and been profiled by NOW Magazine, The Peak, Canadian Art, C Magazine, CV2 -The Canadian Journal of Poetry and Critical Writing, Mobilizing Metaphor: Art, Culture and Disability Activism in Canada, and the 40th Anniversary Edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves. Most recently, they are the 2020 recipient of the Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award.